Great Western Coffee Shop

Interesting article here about a lady not allowed into the platform to help her elderly grandparents into the train;

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/dundee/daughter-upset-by-railway-station-platform-restrictions-1.63662

Can't say I've ever had a problem with FGW.  They are always willing to let you through if you have a valid reason.

buy a return ticket to the next stop, probably cost less than the effort of writing to/ phoning the press, when you take account of the cost of paper, stamps, phone bills etc.

Mmmmm....  So hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to see my elders off at Salisbury, and I wasn't allowed onto the platform, I would have to buy a ^4.80 return ticket to Tisbury to do so?

Doesn't seem quite right somehow?

Sadly the DfT has been complicit in this nonsense. A fortune is spent on adaptations for the disabled traveller but anyone who is just a bit old and wobbly is merely an inconvenience; if they can't manage, tough. >:(

Sadly for me it's another reason to advise my (as yet not wheelchair dependent) elderly relatives not to travel by rail.  In the past as a family we have taken them to the train and put helped them on (not boarding, as this is already precarious) and had other family members waiting to meet them at the other end.  There are now just too many obstacles both physical and psychological (Will the seat reservation actually be there? Will someone lift the case onto the train for them?) for me to be confident that this is going to be a good way for them to travel unaccompanied.  If it is up to the individuals on the gate as to whether accompanying friends may access the platform or a different practice for different companies it remains too 'hit and miss' to enable a confident plan to be made.  It pains me to say this as a great supporter the railways who is sympathetic to revenue protection.  Unfortunately, this is one source of revenue lost from our family.

What really gets my goat is the constant trotting out by TOCs of the 'security' excuse.

Why is there any more of a security risk at a barriered versus unbarriered station?

It's a totally spurious argument. The truth is there are some staff who have little or no empathy for the less able traveller and there are some staff who use the barriers as an excuse to wield a little power and control over the travelling public. And these staff are then backed up by their employers who trot out the petty excuses of 'security' or, as has been the case in the FGW area at Truro, 'health and safety'.

So, in security mad London, it is still possible to buy a platform ticket for ^1 at any London Underground ticket office (or POM where the ticket office no longer exists).

POM = Passenger Operated Machine, aka TVM

When I took my daughter and her baby to Temple Meads to get the train to Didcot, I asked if I could go with her to help her on the train, and was waved through with a smile. It's the way it should be, and was much appreciated.

If one was seeing off someone by plane, an infirm person would get a personal buggy ride from an assistant (I suppose we would call them porter years ago).  Admittedly they are now charging a pound car park fee to drop off, although I did a pick up at Lulsgate in short order (having my passenger let me know by phone she had arrived) and was out of the car park in two minutes.  Interestingly, whilst I fumbled at the barrier for a coin, it suddenly lifted.  So here's a tip.  Just pause and don't be in too much of a hurry to pay after inserting the ticket at Lulsgate.  I think it would appear that one is given a few minutes of grace.   Coming back to the rail situation, one could do something similar there.  After all, if one 'paid' for a platform ticket, by depositing one's credit card in the machine (or a twenty pound note), when one emerged one would put it back in the machine and receive quittance on one's credit card or a refund of the said amount.  At 'halte' type stations, the guard sees who gets on so normally controls the ticket on the train within minutes, so you don't need barriers.  Are buggy rides available at the major stations?  If not, they should be.  Not 'shop mobility' but 'station  mobility'! 

Once again BNM giving an 'opinion' on something he knows little about.  Have you even been to Truro since it was barriered?
All you are doing is reading negative press and basing your argument on it.

It's a lot easier for staff all round if people can say their goodbyes at the barriers and if the person boarding the train is not able to do so easily then arrange proper assistance for them. The amount of times I've had people aboard the train after it has left the station who were helping someone on board and just didn't appreciate just how short a time trains can be timetabled to occupy a platform is now well into double figures.

Barriered stations tend to be bigger with people on the platform often waiting for more than one train and it can often be difficult for on-train and platform staff to see who is intending to travel and who is just helping someone find their seat.

Keeping any well-wishers off the platform eliminates the at-door goodbye conversations (or from a distance the are they or are they not boarding the train) and the associated standing too close to the train, tapping on the window and the inevitable grandchildren (of whatever age) trying to race the train out of the station.

By arranging proper assistance for those who are genuinely unable to manage the journey themselves allows a record at either end of what is needed and also provides the train guard with a list of those who may be in need of a hand in the event of any disruption.

I do see your point, but quoting Salisbury as an example, if you arrive early for your train, there's very little in the way of seating on the ticket office side of the barriers, but plenty on the platforms. It's a sad state of affairs when you can't wait for a train with someone. It's not just those who require assistance who may want a bit of company whilst waiting.

It should be possible to buy platform tickets- timed possibly- with the proviso that you can't actually get on a train to see someone off, and that the penalties are severe if you're caught trying to travel with one.

Perhaps only sell platform tickets at the same time as travel tickets or on production of travel tickets?

Good idea bobm.

adc - indeed, another variation on my suggestions.  I was shocked to read RTS's story although I can just imagine that people walk about in a dream, imagining they are in an old film where everyone is kept waiting for the lovers eventually part and the porter comes up to close the door.  One does not expect to see people off at the plane in airports so why should one do so at a big station?  Does anyone know if my airport passenger trolley facility exists at the big stations?

Perhaps another idea,
If helping people onto a train, buy a ticket and travel with them to the next stop and then return?

Probably OK if you are at Penzance and the next stop is St Erth, not quite so good if you are Reading and the next stop is Taunton...

Agreed bobm however if someone is incapable of boarding a train alone, then yes they should be accompanied.

FGW *do not* sell any platform tickets (except Didcot & Guildford) and that won't change ever.

It's not really platform tickets at Guildford either. You can get a bridge pass which allows you to cross the footbridge as it is a right of way but it states clearly on it that it doesn't allow access to the platforms, and at the steps to each platform there are signs clearly saying you aren't allowed on to the platforms with a bridge pass.

I know they don't currently, I am suggesting they should.

Why?

So people can gain access to platforms without having to ask for the goodwill of gateline staff to allow them to pass through.

Indeed: that's the way to do it!  ;)

If you need to go though to assist someone fine.. (Not the whole family, 1 person is all that is needed to help on most occasions).   If you just want to wave frantically at the train then there is no need. 

What people need to do is think a bit more and travel within their constraints.  If Auntie Beryl can't carry her massive suitcase then clearly Auntie Beryl shouldn't be taking it.

There is also a very good assistance procedure in place across the rail network and always available to be used.  It also, in these days of financial trouble, help to keep people in a job. 

I've taken the trouble (bit of a search, but should have done this before corresponding here) to see what was available at TM (as an example of a large station) for disabled help  - and everything is, including wheelchair.  I assume thus that a member of staff will wheel you to the train and a ramp provided can get you on it.  Hopefully the train does not depart with the member of staff on it.   :o 

I just wondered what happens if you are travelling to Maiden Newton, say.  How do you get out?

Can't be done, can it?
   

Stay on the train via Weymouth as the northbound platform at Maiden Newton has step free access?   Train has ramps, Train Manager will help.

We currently have the same situation for those west-bound passengers for Nailsea & Backwell who need step free access: First Great Western will arrange a taxi from Bristol Temple Meads if requested in advance.

FGW reserve the right to refuse entry on to any FGW station.

FGW have Platform tickets at some stations for example Reading where a pass is given out to individuals to take elderly or disabled customers to the train and these are then returned to the gate line on your way out. The issues with these are that they can be just a way in to the network and it is the gateline supervisors discretion to allow this pass to be issued.

Platform tickets remain unsold by GW except at Didcot to access the Museum.

Astonishing.  Since I joined this discussion site, the stories about use of taxis by FGW, also for late running and cancellations, has left me flabbergasted.  How on earth does FGW make a profit, or is it doing so because the 'cap and collar' subsidies are just picking up the tab somehow.

In BR days, one was simply told that journey times were not guaranteed and that was that. I do not recall any provision for taxis whatsoever. As for disabled pax, I suppose the point is that, to take the examples, Nalisea and Maiden Newton would have both been staffed and pax taken over the barrow crossing.   

These days, various laws such as the disability discrimination ones say that service businesses have to take all reasonable steps to provide a service that's at least equal in quality to the service provided to able-bodied people.   It doesn't say "the same service" nor does it stop discrimination in favour of disabled people.

The most cost effective way to adhere to these laws, especially where customer numbers are small and a tiny proportion of the total as well, may be to throw cost to the wind when a service is needed.    It would probably cost around a milion pounds to put in a ramped footbridge at Maiden Newton - how many taxi journeys would be covered for that?   Better delay until the current footbridge is life expired.   At busier stations (Worle, Bradford-on-Avon) the sums would have been different.

Thanks Graham.  It was of course the 'delay' taxis that have made me shudder at the cost (that story about the Cornwall sleeper passenger from Paddington back along).  By the way, I believe the BR SR concrete one at Maiden Newton is due to be replaced.  (SR had the 'ownership' of that stretch and immediately changed a lot of the signalling, painting, and a lot of the furniture -it's how they behaved in those days, just like franchisees now).